Prince Roxas and the Ebony Castle
by Tyger and Darkdracofire
Summary: /Fairy Tale AU, Axel/Roxas/ Once upon a time, Prince Roxas was sent to seek his fortune, and save a princess. Any princess.


For IJ's roads_diverged, theme #44 - Fairy Tales

--

Once upon a time, there was a prince by the name of Roxas.

He was the third-born child of a small yet prosperous nation, and it was generally understood that like his brothers before him, he would go out to seek his fortune. People hoped that, like both Sora and Link, he'd meet a nice princess, save a kingdom or two, and settle down. (No one was sure if Sora's Riku was also a princess, but no one cared enough about it to risk life and limb asking.)

Unlike his brothers, Roxas did not want to go save a kingdom, rescue a princess, or anything. Princesses were, in his experience, shrill and noisy and clingy and way too much trouble to deal with (except for Naminé, but she was his sister and so _didn't count_). And kingdoms were, thankfully, _not his problem_. The best thing, in his opinion, about being the third son was that there was very little chance he'd ever have to run one himself.

All Roxas really wanted to do was play games with his friends, wipe the floor on the practice courts, and go out and kill monsters in the forest. He didn't need to leave home for _that_. But his father was insistent, and so he was kicked out of the castle, with only trail-rations, his weapons, and his horse Neoshadow, the even more temperamental successor to his childhood pony Shadow.

--

His first brother had gone east, and his second brother west, so, as he didn't particularly like freezing, Roxas started to travel north.

He travelled for many days, but none of the villages he came across had any knowledge of nearby strife-ridden kingdoms, kidnapped princesses, or anything he was supposed to be looking for. Even the monsters were comparatively tame. Roxas was _most_ put out.

--

One day, as he rode through a mountain pass, he noticed a large outcropping of black stone on the side of the trail. Given that the mountains were mainly made out of light grey stone riddled with white, he rode over to take a closer look.

On further inspection, it appeared to be some kind of castle, only sunk into the mountain-face. Which was. Ominous. And since ominous was what he was supposed to be looking for, he rode right up to the gate.

Unsurprisingly, the gate was locked, but that had never really stopped him doing anything. It did mean he had to leave Neoshadow outside, but given that horses couldn't climb stairs very easily - and princesses were always at the top of the tallest tower - he'd've had to do that before long anyway, so it didn't _really_ matter.

The castle was... incredibly empty. Not only of people, but of _things_, too. No suits of armour, ancient relics, flags, side-tables... just rooms and rooms of shiny black stone. It was kind of creepy. Obviously he was in the right place.

After he'd looked around the first floor, though, he decided to, well. Stop with that, and just find some stairs. He'd been told in no uncertain terms he wouldn't be allowed back home without a princess (or, if there was a severe lack of princesses, a peasant girl with a heart of gold could do in a pinch. But preferably a princess.), so it was well past time to find the tallest tower. There was something really weird about this castle, though. It was too empty, and too... easy to walk around in; it made him twitchy, wondering when the dragon/evil overlord/scores of dark knights/etc. were going to jump out at him.

Still, when he got to the top of the tower - or at least what he assumed was the top, given the lack of more stairs to climb - he was half-convinced that it, like everything else, would just be empty, and he'd have to give up in vain. Which was annoying; he'd spent _hours_ looking around, what with the paranoia about what might be around every corner. Which, when there continued to be nothing, tended to grow, not lessen.

He drew his dark blade, Oblivion - which matched nicely with the décor, at least - because if there _was_ anything it'd certainly be here, and he wasn't about to get taken by surprise _now_. Tense, he slowly opened the door.

He was right - there _was_ something. It just wasn't anything like he'd expected.

--

There was a fireplace, crackling loudly in the silence of the castle, and rugs and boxes. And cases. And chests. Everywhere. Honestly, the room was as crowded as the rest of the castle was empty.

Roxas scowled, and jumped on the nearest chest - it looked solid enough to hold his weight - and surveyed the room. Was it all just... stuff?

No, wait! Corner near the fireplace! It was kind of obnoxiously bright, but that was hair. And blankets. Which were as black as the castle itself, if a lot fuzzier. He guessed he'd found his princess. Despite the fact that princesses were supposed to be in large, airy, castle-tower rooms in four poster beds, lying on their backs with their hands crossed in front of them, not curled up on the floor in a ball of fur blankets next a fireplace with only their hair showing... he'd found one. _Finally_. Maybe now he could go home.

Roxas walked over to where the princess was sleeping - for a given value of walk, what with the state of the room - and looked down at her. He knew what the tradition was, everyone did, but he'd always thought kisses seemed to be an awfully haphazard way of waking someone up. So he booted her in the ribs.

The princess let out an _oof_ sound, before rolling out of the blankets and jumping back, one hand grabbing one of the spiky round red things propped up on the wall beside her and throwing it at Roxas.

_Huh_, he thought, jumping back out of the way, _maybe it's actually an evil overlord. A baby one, or something._

"What th' fuck," grumbled the. Princess? Overlord? (Underlord? Was that what a baby overlord was?), and oh. Yeah, so not a princess. Princesses didn't have voices like that. Men had voices like that. And men weren't princesses. Except for maybe Riku.

"The hell're you?" the... guy. Person. Added, when Roxas didn't say anything, or move to attack. This was mainly because he was rather confused, but the fact remains.

"Roxas," said Roxas.

The guy gave him a weird look, and said, "Well then, Roxas, the fuck're you doing here?"

"Looking for a princess," said Roxas, because honesty tended to get him in less trouble than trying to lie. This does not mean honesty kept him _out_ of trouble.

"Looking for a. _What_? A princess. Here?" The guy gave him the sort of look his father often used, when one of his sons had done something stupid. It was a look all of his sons were intimately familiar with, and slightly disturbing to see on the face of a stranger.

"It's a creepy dark castle in the middle of nowhere," Roxas pointed out.

"You... actually have a point," said the guy, looking surprised. "Well, there's no princesses here, anyway. Why're you looking for one? You got one in mind, or, you know, _any princess will do_."

"I'm out seeking my fortune. I'm not allowed home without one." Slight pause, while he debated the merits of asking, then, "Are you a dark lord?"

The guy gave him the idiot-look again, so before he could say something scathing, Roxas said, "Okay then. I'll go and leave you and your creepy castle alone."

"What, just like that?" said the guy, stretching one arm up behind his head absently. Roxas nodded. "Huh."

He didn't look like he was going to say any more, so Roxas began clambering over the boxes again, though he kept him in sight the entire time. Guy had another one of those spiky things in his other hand, and Roxas wasn't _stupid_.

"Hey," said the guy, when he finally reached the door. "Look. I'm not saying I'm not pissed about you coming all the way up here and wakin' me up like that, but you know it's something like midnight, right?" Roxas shrugged; such things had never bothered him. "And we're in the middle of the mountains and this is the only shelter for miles."

Roxas hadn't thought about it like that before. "I guess," he said. There was, after all, something to be said about not freezing to death.

"All right," said the guy. "Anyway, I'm Axel - remember that!"

And with that, things were organised in a swift and efficient manner. The gate was unlocked, and Neoshadow brought 'round into the stables - _after_ they managed to save Axel's dragon cub from his attentions, anyway. ("I thought you said you _weren't_ a dark lord," said Roxas.

"There's nothing wrong with dragons!" said Axel. "And Valoo's too stupid to be a minion, anyway."

"So what," said Roxas, giving him a flat stare. "You're not a dark lord because you have a _reject dragon_?"

"He's not really - well, okay, yeah, pretty much.") Valoo warmed to Roxas immediately, and a swift boot to the nose was enough to ensure he didn't try and make Roxas warm up to him in a _too_ literal manner.

Roxas refused to sleep in Axel's room - fire or no fire, he _would not_ sleep in the highest room in the tallest tower, as he _was not a princess_, and the fact that _Axel_ had no shame had _nothing to do with him_. Axel laughed at him a lot, but showed him to a small room a floor down, and bid him goodnight.

"Yeah, whatever," said Roxas. "Pleasant dreams."

--

In the morning, Roxas, not cruel enough to wake someone up _twice_, made his way downstairs with nary a goodbye in store. Neoshadow was, while mollified slightly by the admittedly spacious and well-stocked stables, still annoyed at him for taking away his prey last night, so, not being suicidal, Roxas set out to placate him with a _really good rubdown_.

He was just about done, when Axel appeared over the top of the stall. (He could do that, unlike Roxas. Roxas had to jump even to see over. Whoever had designed this place had been a _bastard_, he was sure.)

"Hey," said Axel. "Back on the road already?"

Roxas shrugged. It wasn't like that princess would find itself, or anything.

"Breakfast first?" Roxas looked up at him, and he grinned back, while grabbing Valoo out of mid-air before Neoshadow could bite him again.

"Sure," said Roxas. And that was all it took.


End file.
